Animal Aid has released undercover footage showing extreme acts of
cruelty at Elmkirk (Cheale Meats) Ltd, an Essex slaughterhouse that
claims to uphold high standards of animal welfare. The video shows staff
punching pigs, burning them with cigarettes, hit in the face with bats,
incorrectly stunned and dragged by their ears to slaughter.
Astonishingly, the Department for the Environment and Rural Affairs
(Defra) has announced it will not prosecute Cheale Meats because
activists trespassed to obtain the footage. To learn more please visit
UK Government Refuses to Prosecute Extreme Cruelties Uncovered in New
Pig Investigation:http://vegan.com/blog/2011/07/29/uk-government-refuses-to-prosecute-extreme-cruelties-uncovered-in-new-pig-investigation/

Sadly, unjustly and surprisingly God’s farmed animals are offered
little or no protection from unimaginable abuse at the hands of
humanity. Although these acts of cruelty make our hearts feel heavy, our
will to end their exploitation is stronger. Let’s keep spreading the
message of compassion, mercy and love!

"The worst scream I have ever heard (and I have heard them all first
hand)... The worst scream I have ever heard: a mother cow on a dairy
farm, as she screams and bellows for her stolen baby to be given back to
her."

A recent study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
might just explain why people seem to show compassion and empathy when
they witness the suffering of single individuals or a few of them vs. a
great number or a multitude of them. For example, people tend to feel
revulsion at the sight of someone abusing a pet, but react with
indiference at the he large-scale industrial exploitation of billions of
farmed animals. The two social psychologists from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, C. Daryl Cameron and B. Keith Payne that
led the study, “Escaping Affect: How Motivated Emotion Regulation
Creates Insensitivity to Mass Suffering," conclude that “large-scale
tragedies in which the most victims are in need of help will ironically
be the least likely to motivate helping.” To learn more please visit
Mass Animal Suffering and the Collapse of Compassion:http://aldf.org/article.php?id=1785

We need to take responsibility for our actions and their
consequences. Each one of us, human or animal, is a creation of God, and
therefore we share His/Her essence. When we harm any creature we are not
honoring God and more importantly we are not following Christ’s
teachings of compassion, mercy and love. The result is much suffering
and pain for everyone, the ones causing it and the recipients of it. We
all seek peace and love and an essential place to practice this is every
time we sit down for a meal.

A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger
quiets contention.

The way we deal when confrontations arise can change the result of
the outcome. If we want to be witnesses to the love of God in each of
us, we should be firm but keep our anger in control. Our lifestyle
speaks volumes of our beliefs.

James McWilliams, Associate Professor of history at Texas State
University and author of "Just Food: Where Locavores Get It Wrong and
How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly," shares his insight regarding the
mindset that enables people in agribusiness to exploit farmed animals
and ignore the monumental ethical implications of it. For these people,
animals are of no moral value. Dr. McWilliams argues that before 1850,
farmers had a close physical proximity with animals, which allowed them
to see these animals as sentient beings. However, in the 19th century,
agricultural scientists, followed by farmers, began to view farming as a
strictly quantifiable business and therefore started looking at animals
as profitable commodities. Factory farming then became a tool for
farmers to avoid looking at the suffering they were causing animals,
because factory farms are "... designed to protect those involved from
the emotional consequences of killing." To read the article please visit
The Dangerous Psychology of Factory Farming:http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2011/08/the-dangerous-psychology-of-factory-farming/244063/

We have become spiritually, morally and ethically corrupt by allowing
the mass exploitation and slaughter of billion of sentient beings every
year for the sole purpose of taste and profit! We should all strive to
alleviate suffering in God’s Creation and align our food choices with
our values and beliefs, thus not supporting the animal agriculture
industry.

Indeed, peace begins with each of us as it is directly related to our
choices. By our lack of mercy with the animals raised for food, we are
not promoting peace but instead violence and devastation. So let’s be
consistent with our most inner values and align our food choices with
them. To watch the video please visit Peace Begins With You by Sarah
Kiser:http://www.nonhumanslavery.com/peace-begins-with-you-by-sarah-kiser